Guides

Straight answers, written by the people who’d file it.

1,423 plain-English guides on cross-border moves, US and Canadian returns, and small-business money. Each one ends in what to do next, and says when a written Position Check is the smarter first step.

Capital gains RRSP TFSA Departure tax Estate tax FBAR LLC Principal residence

CROSS-BORDER A Canadian Corporation With a U.S. Shareholder

What applies to you
What it costs if you wait
What to do next

Fairlight Accounting · US + Canadian Tax Desks

1,423 guides

Small Business Tax

Carpet Cleaning Technicians — Employee or Contractor? The Tests, the State Rules That Are Stricter, and Why the Van Decides

September 22, 2026

Carpet cleaning is one of the industries where 'independent contractor' technicians are most often employees in fact: they drive the company's van, run the company's truck-mount, work the company's schedule, and wear the company's shirt. The IRS's control tests and the states' stricter ABC tests both point the same way. Here is how the tests apply to a carpet cleaning technician, what misclassification costs, and how to structure a genuine subcontractor relationship where one actually exists.

Small Business Tax

Chimney Sweep Business Deductions: Rotary Systems, Inspection Cameras, the Liners You Resell, and the Van That Carries It All

September 22, 2026

A chimney sweep's costs are a specialized toolkit — rotary cleaning systems, inspection cameras, vacuums built for soot — a van outfitted to carry it, the certifications the trade runs on, and, for sweeps who do repairs, the caps, dampers, and liners they buy for resale. The deductions follow, with a resale-inventory question most sweeps handle loosely. Here is each category, the elections that fit a one-van operation, and the bookkeeping for a business that earns most of its year between September and January.

Small Business Tax

Chimney Sweep Entity Structure: S Corporation or Schedule C for a Solo Sweep With a Five-Month Season

September 22, 2026

A chimney sweep's entity decision has the standard S-corporation arithmetic and one sharp constraint: the season. Most of the year's profit arrives between September and January, and an S corporation must pay the owner's salary through payroll in July when there's nothing coming in. Here is the analysis for a solo sweep and for a two-technician company, the reasonable salary for a working sweep, and how the season changes what 'worth it' means.

Small Business Tax

Chimney Sweep Estimated Taxes: Seventy Percent of the Year in Five Months, and the Summer Installments With Nothing Behind Them

September 22, 2026

A chimney sweep earns most of the year between September and January — the inspection rush before the first fire, the winter emergency calls — and the estimated tax system asks for payments in April, June, and September when the van is mostly parked. The annualized method was written for this shape; the reserve funds what it doesn't. Here is the sweep's estimated-tax setup, the calendar mapped onto the heating season, and the two installments that fail without a plan.

Small Business Tax

Chiropractic Practice Deductions: The Tables, the Imaging, the Malpractice Premium, and the Continuing Education That Keeps the License

September 22, 2026

A chiropractic practice's deductions are equipment-heavy at the start — adjusting tables, digital X-ray, decompression and therapy equipment — and recurring after: malpractice insurance, the state's continuing education hours, the electronic health record subscription, and the office's lease. Here is each category, the depreciation elections for a practice's opening equipment, the associate-versus-employee question, and the specified-service classification that shapes the practice's other tax decisions.

Small Business Tax

Chiropractic Practice Entity Structure: The Professional Corporation Requirement, the S Election, and the Specified-Service Phase-Out

September 22, 2026

A chiropractic practice's entity choice starts with a constraint most businesses don't have: in many states, a licensed health professional must practice through a professional corporation or professional LLC owned only by licensees. On top of that sits the S election — usually right for a profitable practice — and the specified-service QBI phase-out that makes the practice's taxable income the number to manage. Here is the entity analysis for a solo practitioner, a multi-doctor practice, and the associate-to-partner transition.

Small Business Tax

Chiropractic Practice Estimated Taxes: The 110 Percent Safe Harbor, the Additional Medicare Tax, and the Personal Injury Settlement That Lands in One Quarter

September 22, 2026

A successful chiropractic practice puts its owner above the income levels where the estimated tax rules tighten — the 110 percent prior-year safe harbor, the Additional Medicare Tax, the specified-service QBI phase-out — and its income has a lumpy component: personal injury and workers' compensation cases that settle months or years after treatment and pay in one quarter. Here is the estimated-tax setup for a high-income practice, the mechanics the income level triggers, and the reserve that absorbs the settlements.

Small Business Tax

Concrete and Masonry Business Deductions: Mixers, Forms, Saws, the Skid Steer, and the Materials That Set Before You Bill

September 22, 2026

A concrete and masonry contractor's costs are heavy in both senses — mixers, forms, saws, a skid steer or mini-excavator, dump trailers, and the trucks that haul them — plus materials that are a large share of every job and can't be returned once poured. The deductions follow the equipment's depreciation lives and the materials' job costing, with a seasonal calendar that stops the work in winter. Here is each category, the elections for an equipment-heavy trade, and the bookkeeping that ties materials to jobs.

Small Business Tax

Concrete and Masonry Business Entity: LLC or S Corporation for a Crew-Based Contractor With a Winter Shutdown

September 22, 2026

A concrete contractor with a crew already runs a payroll — which makes the S corporation election cheaper to add than it is for a solo tradesperson — and carries liability exposure that makes the LLC non-negotiable regardless. The complications are the winter shutdown (an owner's salary through months with no pours) and the equipment write-offs that swing profit year to year. Here is the entity analysis for a crew-based concrete or masonry business, the reasonable salary for a working owner-foreman, and the timing that fits the season.

Small Business Tax

Concrete and Masonry Estimated Taxes: A Nine-Month Season, a Three-Month Shutdown, and the Equipment Purchase That Changes the Number

September 22, 2026

A concrete contractor's income runs March through November and stops — no pours in January, and the equipment loans don't. Estimated taxes fall on a calendar that ignores the shutdown, and a skid steer bought in September can cut the year's tax by more than an installment. Here is the setup that fits a nine-month season: the reserve built in the pouring months, the safe harbor or annualized choice, and the fall recompute that catches the equipment.

Small Business Tax

Daycare Center Deductions: Food Purchasing, Licensing, Staff Training, and the Facility That Replaces the Home Deduction

September 22, 2026

A daycare center's deductions are a conventional business's — a lease or a building, a payroll, purchased food, supplies, insurance — with childcare-specific lines: the food program's center-rate reimbursements, the licensing and staff-qualification costs the regulator requires, ratio-driven staffing, and a playground that depreciates on its own schedule. Here is each category, the improvement and depreciation elections for a leased or owned facility, and the bookkeeping a center needs for its regulator and its return.

Small Business Tax

Daycare Center Entity and the Employer Childcare Credit: The LLC, the S Election, and the Credit Most Centers Never Claim

September 22, 2026

A daycare center is a staff-heavy, liability-exposed business, which settles the entity question early: an LLC (or corporation) for the liability, and an S election once the owner's profit clears a director's reasonable salary. The center-specific item is the employer-provided childcare credit — available to the center for its own staff's children, and to the employers the center contracts with — which the 2025 legislation made substantially larger. Here is the entity analysis, the licensing interaction, and the credit's mechanics.

Small Business Tax

Daycare Center Estimated Taxes: When the Food Program Check Lags the Meals, Payroll Runs Every Two Weeks, and Enrollment Sets the Number

September 22, 2026

A daycare center's owner pays estimated taxes on pass-through profit that enrollment sets and payroll consumes — a staff-heavy business where a classroom's ratio can turn a full room into a thin margin. The food program's reimbursements arrive a month or two after the meals, subsidy payments follow the state's calendar, and the S corporation owner's salary withholding is often the cleanest mechanism. Here is the center's estimated-tax setup, the cash-flow items that move it, and the quarterly check.

Small Business Tax

Daycare Center Retirement Plans: The SIMPLE IRA for a Staff-Heavy Center, and the Startup and Contribution Credits That Pay for the Match

September 22, 2026

A daycare center has the retirement-plan problem of every staff-heavy, thin-margin business: any plan the owner wants must cover the staff, and the staff are many and modestly paid. The SIMPLE IRA is built for exactly this — a match only for employees who participate, no testing, no filing — and the retirement plan startup credit and employer contribution credit return most of the early cost. Here is the SIMPLE's design for a center, the credits' arithmetic, when the safe-harbor 401(k) takes over, and the state mandates that make a plan compulsory.

Small Business Tax

Daycare Center Worker Classification: Why Teachers, Aides, and Substitutes Are Employees, and What Paying Them on a 1099 Costs You

September 22, 2026

There is no serious argument that a daycare center's teachers and aides are independent contractors — they work the center's hours, in the center's rooms, with the center's children, under the center's director, to meet the center's licensing ratios. Substitutes, part-time enrichment providers, and the after-hours cleaner are the only workers where the question is real. Here is why the classification is settled, where the edges are, and what a center that has been paying staff on 1099s faces and how it fixes it.

Small Business Tax

Entity Structure for a Home Daycare: Why Most Stay Sole Proprietors, and When the LLC or the S Election Makes Sense

September 22, 2026

Most home daycare providers are sole proprietors, and for good reasons: the business-use-of-home deduction flows most simply through Schedule C, the family-member payroll exemptions require it, and profit rarely reaches the level where the S election's payroll-tax saving beats its costs. The LLC adds liability protection without changing the tax picture; the S election changes the home deduction's mechanics and rarely pays. Here is the analysis, and the profit level where it flips.

Small Business Tax

Estimated Taxes for a Home Daycare: The Time-Space Deduction and the Food Program Reimbursements That Change the Number

September 22, 2026

A home daycare's income is steadier than most small businesses' — tuition arrives weekly or monthly — which makes its estimated taxes easier than a contractor's. The complications are daycare-specific: the time-space home deduction that isn't known until year-end, the food program reimbursements that are income, and the enrollment changes that move profit mid-year. Here is the setup, the safe harbor that fits, and the quarterly check that keeps the number honest.

Small Business Tax

Hiring an Assistant in a Home Daycare: Payroll Taxes, Substitutes, Workers' Compensation, and the Moment You Become an Employer

September 22, 2026

The first assistant a home daycare provider hires converts a Schedule C business into an employer — federal and state payroll registrations, withholding, unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, and the quarterly filings that come with them. Substitutes, part-timers, and the provider's own family members each have their own rules. Here is what the first hire triggers, what it costs beyond the wage, how substitutes are handled, and the family-member exceptions that matter.

Small Business Tax

Home Daycare or Daycare Center: How the Tax Picture Changes When You Leave the House

September 22, 2026

A home daycare and a daycare center are the same business in the eyes of a parent and different businesses in the eyes of the tax code. The home provider gets a business-use-of-home deduction with a relaxed exclusive-use test, standard meal rates, and Schedule C simplicity; the center gets a lease or a building, a staff-heavy payroll, the employer childcare credit, and a licensing regime with its own costs. Here is how the two compare on deductions, entity, payroll, and compliance — and what changes at the transition.

Small Business Tax

Retirement Plans for Childcare Providers: The Solo 401(k) at Home, the SIMPLE IRA and Safe-Harbor 401(k) at the Center

September 22, 2026

A home daycare provider with no employees has the widest retirement menu and the smallest income to fund it; a center with a dozen staff has coverage obligations that shape which plan is realistic. Here is the plan choice for each — the Solo 401(k) for the home provider (and what a spouse or a teenage employee does to it), the SIMPLE IRA as the center's default, the safe-harbor 401(k) for the growing center, and the startup and contribution credits that pay for much of it.

Small Business Tax

Tax Deductions for a Home Daycare: The Time-Space Percentage, Food, Supplies, Toys, and the Yard

September 22, 2026

A home daycare's deductions come in two kinds: the ones taken in full (food at the standard rates, toys and supplies used only by the daycare, licensing, insurance) and the ones taken at the time-space percentage (the home's costs — mortgage interest, taxes, utilities, repairs, depreciation — and anything the family also uses). The time-space computation is the daycare's own rule, and getting it right is most of the return. Here is the computation, the categories, and the records that support each.

Small Business Tax

The Food Program and Your Taxes: CACFP Reimbursements as Income, and the Standard Meal Rates That Replace Grocery Receipts

September 22, 2026

A home daycare provider on the Child and Adult Care Food Program receives monthly reimbursements for meals served — and the tax code lets the provider deduct meals at standard per-meal rates instead of tracking grocery receipts. The reimbursements are income; the standard rates are the deduction; the net is small but the mechanics are specific, and the records the standard rates require are attendance and meal logs, not receipts. Here is how the program and the deduction work together, which rates apply, and the choices a provider makes.

Small Business Tax

What a Daycare License Costs in Tax Terms: Fees, Background Checks, Training, Inspections, and the Start-Up Timing Trap

September 22, 2026

Getting and keeping a daycare license costs money — application and renewal fees, background checks for everyone in the home or on staff, required training hours, first-aid and CPR certifications, home or facility modifications to meet the standards, and the inspections that follow. Most of it is deductible; the timing decides how. Costs before the license is granted and the business opens are start-up costs; costs after are ordinary expenses. Here is the map, for home providers and centers.

Small Business Tax

Appliance Repair Business Deductions: The Van, the Diagnostic Tools, the Parts Inventory, and the Warranty Work Nobody Books Right

September 21, 2026

An appliance repair technician's deductions cluster in four places — the service vehicle, the diagnostic and hand tools, the parts inventory, and the home base — plus a tax question specific to the trade: how warranty and manufacturer-authorized work is paid and reported. Here is each category's rules, the depreciation elections that fit a one-van operation, and the bookkeeping that keeps parts from becoming a year-end problem.

The content on this page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional tax, accounting, or legal advice. See our full legal disclaimer.